Liberty University professors David and Marybeth Baggett earn Christianity Today’s 2019 book award

 A book by two Liberty University professors, David and Marybeth Baggett, has been chosen for Christianity Today’s 2019 Book Awards. The book, “Morals of the Story: Good News about a Good God,” was chosen for an Award of Merit in the Apologetics/ Evangelism category. 

According to David Baggett, a philosophy and apologetics professor, the book focuses on presenting the moral argument for God’s existence and explaining who God is. The husband and wife team intended to reach a wide audience with their book. 

“Moral apologetics has tremendous potential to change people’s minds and touch their hearts,” David Baggett said. “It can appeal to the young and old, men and women, educated and uneducated, the left brain and the right.” 

Because they wanted to reach a wide audience, the professors sought to build bridges for the lay reader. 

“The book aims to be accessible and written for both Christians and non-Christians alike,” Marybeth Baggett, an English professor, said. 

She said they did this by presenting the argument in a way that left room for dialogue. She found her background in English helpful in contributing to the book, as many examples in the book were drawn from literature. 

The Baggetts agreed that combining their knowledge and skillsets strengthened the final product. 

“Our conversations as a married couple had already convinced us of how fertile and rife with potential such cross-disciplinary discussions can be,” David Baggett said. “Our minds work differently, and even though we seldom end up disagreeing, we often arrive at our conclusions in different ways that mutually enrich and inform each other.” 

Although the world of academics tends to separate the disciplines, Marybeth Baggett said merging the philosophy and English gave the book a greater depth. 

“Sometimes we tend to unconsciously divide reason and creativity, thinking that if someone’s good in math and the sciences and philosophy/logic, they’re not really equipped for poetry and story,” Marybeth Baggett said. “But I think the blending of the two fields here shows that they can and should mutually support one another and are both stronger for it.” 

She hopes their book will highlight the importance of collaboration and the robust possibilities of interdisciplinary research. 

“One thing I’ve learned, especially through this project, is how much human beings need one another,” Marybeth Baggett said. “As Scripture shows, from its opening pages and especially in the New Testament’s instructions for the church, we are meant to be in community.” 

She added that the book took them a few years to write, although she believes it would have taken longer if it had not been for administrative support from Liberty. 

“(The administration) has had an increased focus on research and scholarship, and I am glad this award can testify to the importance of such scholarly work,” Marybeth Baggett said. 

This is the second book the Baggetts have co-authored. Their first, “At the Bend of the River Grand”, which chronicles the history of a holiness camp meeting in Michigan, was published in 2016.